Neutron imaging is a non-destructive technique with many applications in diverse
fields such as industrial quality assurance, archaeology, and border security. However
with the high cost of the standard fill gas 3He and the high cost of scaling conventional
digital imaging systems to large areas its applications are limited. Here is presented
the proof of concept for a gaseous neutron imaging system utilizing a 10B4C solid state
converter and THGEM technology and 2D passive delay line readout. THGEMs used
for signal amplification can be produced cost effectively and in large areas by PCB
manufacturers. This combined with the reduced channel processing requirements of
delay lines over individual pixel readouts results in a cost-effective and scalable system
when compared to similar designs using solid state multipliers such as silicon photomultipliers. Here is presented a proof of concept of this imaging system with data
acquisition accomplished by digitization and offline image reconstruction achieving
mean X and Y resolution of <sigma_x> = (1.37+-0.24) mm and <sigma_y> = (1.15+-0.13) mm respectively. Studied in parallel with this system is the effectiveness of gadolinium
oxide based paint as a thermal neutron shield and image contrast agent. / Thesis / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) / In this work is presented the development process of a novel and cost-effective neutron
imaging system capable of imaging soft biological and dense materials that X-rays are
unable to penetrate. Such a system may be scaled to large areas for many applications
including the study of large archeological objects or employed as a security measure
to monitor border checkpoints for transportation of controlled radioactive materials.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:mcmaster.ca/oai:macsphere.mcmaster.ca:11375/26310 |
| Date | 06 1900 |
| Creators | Burke, Devin |
| Contributors | Byun, Soo Hyun, Physics and Astronomy |
| Source Sets | McMaster University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
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